ANGOLA, MOZAMBIQUE, GUINEA AFRICA’S FORGOTTEN WARS IN PORTUGAL’S TERRITORIES

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31520, 7 November 1967, Page 16

ANGOLA, MOZAMBIQUE, GUINEA AFRICA’S FORGOTTEN WARS IN PORTUGAL’S TERRITORIES

IBu the Lisbon correspondent of the “Financial Times.” London.) [Reprinted from the '‘Financial Times” by arrangement J

Things are going well in Portugal for Dr Salazar’s Government. Arter some doleful prognostications about prospects for 1967, the ageing leader and his handful of close advisers must feel reasonably proud of what has happened so far this year.

The pressing problem of inflation, which showed serious signs of getting out of control last year, has been contained—and, indeed, during the second quarter of the year there was a noticeable down-turn in both the consumer price index and the wages index. Progress has been made in attracting foreign capital to Portugal, while the country has maintained its highlyfavourable position within the European Free Trade Association in spite of rumblings of discontent among some fellowmembers. Valuable Break In the international field the heat seems to have gone out of attacks on Portugal. The ineffectiveness of the United Nations sanctions policy on Rhodesia has enabled the astute Foreign Minister, Dr Franco Nogueira, to guide the country through some troubled waters over the Rhodesian issue; a new and important alignment of views has been achieved with Dr Hastings Banda: and little has been said about this country’s almost-forgotten wars on three fronts in Africa, giving the Government what it believes to have been a valuable break during which it has been able to consolidate the war effort. In the long term, this is perhaps the most significant achievement so far this year. Politically, it is this issue which, more than any other, dominates discussion here—and the lull in outside criticism has had a noticeable effect on the confidence of the people. It would be wrong, however, to think a Vietnam-type situation had developed In which there was discussion about the wisdom of the commitment to defend Portuguese interests against the terrorist incursions in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea. There are no such doubts: there is complete acceptance of the determination to defeat the terrorists, whatever the cost. Not Questioned In the six years since Portugal first found it necessary to rearm and re-equip to face her attackers in the Overseas Provinces, there has never been any question about the commitment. Indeed, if anything, it has grown, and I found during a recent visit to both Angola and Mozambique that the men in the front lilies—those soldiers plucked from lucrative jobs in Lisbon to face the national emergency were even more convinced about the rightness of their cause than civilians in Lisbon who have suffered little but slight inflation as a result of the war. There are now more than 150,000 efficiently trained and

equipped men in the field in the three Overseas Provinces. Are they winning? Of course, there is no simple answer. It would be easy to point to the fact that most of the large coffee plantations in the remote areas of Angola that were abandoned after the first terrorist attacks in 1961 are now resettled. that the tiny enclave of Cabinda has not suffered an attack for many months.

the province’s border with Tanzania, the war here is so remote from the centres of commercial and industrial > life in the territory that it is as far removed for most of the population as it is for the people of Lisbon. In Guinea, it is said, the : rebels have recently stepped up their activity. The main anti-Portuguese group here is the P.A.1.G.C., led by a former Government agrono-

Portugal’s “forgotten wars” In its overseas African territories continue without let-up according to the writer of this article. In the field are 150,000 efficientlytrained and equipped men; defence expenditure consumes 40 per cent of the nation’s budget.

that the once highly effective propaganda war waged by the Tanzanian-based Frelimo rebels in Mozambique has been muted, and that, in spite of exceptional odds, the exposed jungle and swampland that is Portuguese Guinea has survived in Portuguese hands. It is almost impossible to find a Portuguese in authority here who does not believe that there has been a great improvement in the ugly situation of a few years ago —and that the war effort is better now than it has been for a long time. What of the individual territories? In Angola it has been a bloody six years. Here, the Vietnam situation is in fact paralleled. Terrorism for terrorism’s sake seems to have been the order of the day among the M.P.L.A. followers of Mr Holden Roberto, a friend of President Joseph Mobutu. Congo Bases Operating from bases in the Congo (Brazzaville) and the Congo (Kinshasa), they are well - trained and wellequipped. With lightning speed they cut through the dense Angolan jungle, strike their target, and then make their way back across the borders. There can be no doubt that the death toll in Angola since the outbreak of the war has been high. In Mozambique it is a very different war, the terrorists of Dr Edouardo Mondlane’s F.R.E.L.1.M.0. movement concentrating on the political subversion of the tribes along

mist Am Hear Cabral, and its main strength has been in the central Oio district among members of the depressed Balantas tribe, which comprises nearly 30 per cent of the province’s 600,000 people. Working hand-in-glove with the Portuguese military planning in all three provinces is a programme of political pacification—and it is this that is reported to have made important gains during 1967. Agricultural Life Only the known leaders of the terrorists are moved to detention camps. Mostly, prisoners are resettled in closed settlements where they are helped to follow an agricultural life. Later, they are allowed to return to their homes. So, the “forgotten wars" continue with no sign of a letup. Defence expenditure has risen to an all-time high of 40 per cent of the Budget. Yet even this shows encouraging signs of change, with the Cabinda oil strike, the Cassinga iron ore mines in southern Angola, and the Cabora Bassa hydro-electric project in Mozambique all giving hope to economic planners that both provinces will soon pay for their own wars, thereby lifting a heavy burden off the economy of ! Metropolitan Portugal. “All we need is time.” say the Portuguese when referring to their African problems. It will be a long time: they accept his. But, in any event, 1967 so far has been an important breather.